As strange as it may seem for someone who eats mostly vegetarian fare and who will never be mistaken for a Bubba, I have successfully made my first batch of beef jerky, which, by the way, is quite tasty. In all honesty, the beef jerky was an experimental by-product from a recent purchase: Nesco Professional Foody and Jerky Dehydrator.
My garden has produced bumper crops of certain fruits and vegetables despite widespread damage from a late, killing frost around Easter and the hot, dry summer of drought conditions –local meterologists predict another 100+ degree day, our second consecutive 100 degree day, and no appreciable change in the short range forecast and more extremely high temperatures resuming as early as next week. The Piedmont Triad, here in North Carolina, has not experienced 100 degree temperatures in a decade. Near the end of last year’s growing season, I picked up a used dehydrator at our meeting’s annual flea market fund raiser. The price was right and I had so many apples remaining after canning batches and batches of apple butter and apple sauce that I decided to experiment with this method of food storage to see if it was truly viable. That dehydrator performed well enough for me to reconsider drying other varieties of produce from my garden. Alas, as well as the old dehydrator worked, the trays were cracking and weren’t able to hold up to the demands my drying schedule this season. Subsequently, my research eliminated the really expensive commercial dehydrators as well as the inexpensive and less effective ones for an appliance that had the power to deliver the results that it claimed with a manageable counter top footprint, adjustable temperature settings, expandable options, and was easy to use and clean.
While I still consider myself a novice with regard to the food dehydration process and the varieties of foodstuffs suitable for drying, I am pleased with the Nesco dehydrator that I purchased. Science might lay the foundation for the process of dehydration but obtaining edible, tasty food at the end of that process lies securely in the realm of art. My bumper crop of tomatoes –German Johnson, Brandywine, Roma, grape– has yielded ample supplies of pasta sauce and bags of dried tomatoes and, with tomatoes still ripening on the vine, my dehydrator will be working overtime. Although tomatoes are easy to process, I offer this caveat when drying grape and/or cherry tomatoes: cut them in half; don’t attempt to dry them whole as if they are grapes –the tomato raisins I had imagined never materialized, nor did they dry! Melon, particularly cantaloupe, is a good candidate for drying and my only attempt was a tasty success. I have had mixed results with bananas. I dipped my first batch of bananas in a glaze comprised of honey, water, and powdered cinnamon before draining and placing on the drying trays. I imagined, as the instructions hinted, that my finished product would be crisp and the taste of the banana chips heightened by the addition of the lightly flavored glaze; however, the bananas refused to dry and after days in the dehydrator I finally decided that continuing the process was fruitless and was rewarded for my efforts with a strange concoction that may best be described as banana caramel chips with a marked propensity to stick to one’s teeth. I have another batch of banana chips, sans glaze, drying as I write this in hopes of reversing my previous results with bananas. My lone Jalapeño pepper plant was inordinately prolific this year; after freezing a bag of seeded and chopped peppers I opted to dry a few dozen with an eye to making chili pepper flakes or powder. The drying process is simple, the aromas during the process are pungent, and pulverizing the thoroughly dessicated peppers in a food mill is, as well, easy; however, be very careful not to breathe too closely to the food mill, the consequences can be enlightening!
I didn’t realize how popular jerky is. Friends, of whom I would never have ascribed such culinary tastes, revealed to my wife when she told them of my latest venture with a food dehydrator that they love the stuff and use it as their chief snack during a long trip. Jerky also carries a pretty hefty retail price tag so making it yourself is a less expensive option if you really can’t live without it; after all it is one of the featured foods produced by one of Ron Popeil’s infinite array of novelty house wares –nothing can top the Veg-O-Matic, not even Gallagher. Jerky is surprisingly simple to make. The most important ingredient, as far as beef jerky is concerned, is a lean cut or grind of meat. As I mentioned earlier, my Nesco came with enough packets of jerky fixings to process three pounds of meat. I thought three pounds was a bit excessive but I decided to try my luck on a one pound batch of ground beef. I didn’t buy the $30 jerky extruder recommended in the recipe; instead, rolling the meat between two sheets of parchment or wax paper using a rolling pin worked really well without incurring additional cost. Once the meat is the desired thickness, remove the top parchment and cut into strips and place on the drying trays. If I were to make another batch of jerky, I would select a cut of meat that was not quite as lean as what I purchased; I erred in the direction of extremely lean meat, which also increases the cost of the jerky.
Dehydration, while not a panacea, offers a simple and viable method for storing excess food. Since the produce from my own garden is grown organically any method of storage which does not add unnecessary ingredients or chemicals is a boon. It is also a nice way to make special gifts and presents for friends and family. Dehydration also provides a way to use those vegetables and fruits that are placed on the discounted shelf in the produce section of most grocery stores; so often, the logistics of distribution of perishable food and its shelf life are stumbling blocks to the most efficient use of donated items from participating grocery stores or individual gardens so organizations with commercial dehydrators could fill a critical need as well as reduce waste/loss of edible food.
